I’ve got a new web project going on. Its a haiku community where there will be semi-regular prompts to write haikus. Anyone is welcome to join and participate. Please check out the site at the links above.

Even the Pidgins don’t like the rain in So. Cal. Its been raining all week in LA. And not just the normal barely a shower type of rain, but close to a half of a years average rain fall in a week kind of rain. Lots of streets have flooded and mud slides are happening all over the fire ravaged mountains on the east side of LA. A little rain is good (at least in my opinion), but the rain we’ve had this week is a little more than the environment can handle down here. Most of it is just going to run off down the river beds into the ocean and not help the drought conditions anyway.

For the majority of my life, I’ve lived in the Northwest. As a result I’ve come to enjoy the rain. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the sun and welcome its return each spring, but I also look forward to the return of the rain come October. The rain is what helps Oregon retain its majestic beauty. So my response to this weeks prompt at One Deep Breath is dedicated to the rain, that nurtures our environment and provides our fresh water.

This weeks prompt at one deep breath is friends & companions. As an added exercise we were encouraged to write a renga, which is traditionally written in collaboration with someone else. The form consists of a haiku followed by a couplet of two seven syllable lines. My good friend Elizabeth collaborated with me on the following renga.

songs speak to heartswords that could have been rain if shy lips had spokethey gaped, drenched, at the rainbows steam rising from the space between

The “Pineapple Express” relentlessly attacks with warm rain. Rivers swell and overflow, taking with them trees, rocks and houses. The collective mood of the city becomes one of depressed slumber. All the while we are inundated with negative political ads. We wonder if we will ever regain hope. If things can really change. If our vote really matters.

rain falls with darknessunapologetic tothe daylight it hides

Change does happen. Sometimes it sneaks up on us. Sometimes it is sudden and violent. Always afterwards we have a choice in how we respond. This election has brought us change. I hope and pray that this time we respond to that change in a better way.

I just wrapped up “South of the Border, West of the Sun” by Haruki Murakami. As it has been with all the previous novels, I loved it. This novel is perhaps the most linear of the novels I’ve read so far. An interesting tid-bit about this novel: Murakami wrote this book while he lived in America for a few years during the 90s.

When I read, I normally have my moleskine somewhere nearby, and I often write down passages that move me while I read. Here are a few from this novel that moved me:

She gazed at me steadily as I talked. Something about her expression pulled people in. It was as if–this is something I thought of only later, of course–she were gently peeling back one layer after another that covered a person’s heart, a very sensual feeling. Her lips changed ever so slightly with each change in her expression, and I could catch a glimpse deep within her eyes of a faint light, like a tiny candly flickering in the dark, narrow room.

*****

I stood there a long time, gazing at the rainswept streets. Once again I was a twelve-year-old boy staring for hours at the rain. Look at the rain long enough, with no thoughts in your head, and you feel your body falling loose, shaking free of the world of reality. Rain has the power to hypnotize.

*****

Her eyes were like a deep spring in the shade of cliffs, which no breeze could ever reach. Nothing moved there, everything was still. Look closely, and you could just begin to make out the scene reflected in the water’s surface.